The present invention relates to a guard for the needle tip of an intravenous (IV) catheter. In particular, the invention relates to a needle safety device that automatically covers the needle during withdrawal from the patient to prevent accidental contact with medical professionals.
Medical professionals encounter numerous occupational hazards when administering care to patients. One serious hazard is the accidental pricking by a needle after removing from an intravenous catheter. Accidental pricking of medical professionals' skin by the needle is particularly hazardous because the needle tip easily penetrates the latex gloves used by the medical professionals. The concern for accidental pricking is of particular concern in this era of blood borne disease such as Hepatitis or AIDS. Previous needle tip guards have been manufactured that recognize the need for covering the needle tip when being withdrawn from the catheter. The prior art recognizes that the needle tip guard is placed upon the needle after the needle is being withdrawn from the catheter; however, the prior art is difficult to assemble, utilizes an awkward tapered wing housing that requires it to be wider than necessary, utilizes complicated structures and has other disadvantages. These disadvantages will become evident from an examination of U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,504 to McLees and U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,108 to Woehr.
It is therefore a primary objective of the invention to provide a needle safety device in which the disadvantages of the prior art are overcome.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a needle safety device in which a cylindrical non-tapered wing housing cylinder is used that reduces the overall size of the intravenous catheter apparatus.
It is a still further objective of the present invention to provide a needle safety device which has a simplified form and is therefore less costly in production and use.
Therefore, the foregoing objectives, other objects, as well as numerous advantages of the present invention, are set forth in the following disclosure.